About

Dr. Laura Taylor is a Professor in the School of Economics at Georgia Tech and serves as the Director of the Energy Policy and Innovation Center (EPIcenter). She has extensive experience in policy evaluation and the valuation of natural resources and the environment. Her research includes evaluating the impact of renewable energy infrastructure on local communities, assessing the health outcomes related to air pollution exposures, improving benefits estimation for policies aimed at reducing human mortality, examining household responses to water conservation policies, and evaluating the benefits of hazardous waste site cleanup. Her work has been funded by agencies such as the US EPA, USDA, US Department of Interior, and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Taylor has held leadership roles including chairing the School of Economics from 2018 to 2024, and she has been involved in numerous advisory positions at the state and federal levels. She is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, Vice President of the Southern Economic Association, and a member of the Board of Directors for Resources for the Future. Her academic background includes a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University, an M.A. from Duke University, and a B.S. from the University of North Carolina at Asheville. Her teaching interests encompass Environmental Economics and Microeconomics, and her research fields focus on environmental economics, energy economics, and energy, climate, and environmental policy.

Research topics

• Economics
• Engineering
• Political Science
• Microeconomics
• Computer Science
• Business
• Environmental science
• Civil engineering
• Geography
• Natural resource economics
• Environmental resource management
• Agricultural economics
• Cartography
• Environmental planning
• Public economics
• Telecommunications
• Statistics
• Econometrics
• Mathematics
• Labour economics
• Actuarial science
• Environmental economics

Selected publications

• Scheduling optimization of continuous climb and descent operations in busy terminal airspace

  Journal of applied artificial intelligence. · 2024-10-18

  article

  Based on the current terminal airspace structure, a method for scheduling aircraft arrival and departure that integrates trajectory optimization, conflict detection and multi-objective optimization is proposed to help implement continuous climb and descent operations in busy terminal airspace. First, based on the multi-stage optimal control theory, the Gaussian pseudo-spectral method is used to propose a vertical profile optimization method for continuous climb and descent operations, and the trajectory optimization of continuous climb and descent operations based on the cost index is realized. Secondly, according to the wake turbulence interval and release interval used by the runway, and the horizontal and vertical intervals of air operations, the Mahalanobis distance is used to establish an aircraft conflict detection model. Then, considering the demands of air traffic control, airlines, airports and other operating units, a multi-objective scheduling model and method for aircraft arrival and departure that can achieve the optimization results are proposed. Finally, two sets of arrival and departure data at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport during busy periods are selected, multiple interval parameters are set, alternative paths are introduced, and case analysis and comparative studies are carried out. The results show that during the busy period dominated by departures, the terminal airspace of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport can achieve continuous climb and descent operations during busy periods; during the busy period dominated by arrivals, two aircraft could not be dispatched. The introduction of alternative paths can reduce the number of aircraft that cannot be dispatched.

  PublisherDOI

• Bidding against the wind: A choice experiment in green energy, green jobs and offshore views in North Carolina, USA

  Journal of Environmental Management · 2024-01-01 · 6 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Hedonics

  Elsevier eBooks · 2024-10-03

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Advances in Causal Inference at the Intersection of Air Pollution and Health Outcomes

  Annual Review of Resource Economics · 2023-06-20 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This article provides an overview of the recent economics literature analyzing the effect of air pollution on health outcomes. We review the common approaches to measuring and modeling air pollution exposures and the epidemiological and biological literature on health outcomes that undergird federal air regulations in the United States. The article contrasts the methods used in the epidemiology literature with the causal inference framework used in economics. In particular, we review the common sources of estimation bias in epidemiological approaches that the economics literature has sought to overcome with research designs that take advantage of natural experiments. We review new promising research designs for estimating concentration-response functions and identify areas for further research.

  PublisherDOI

• Utility-Scale Solar Farms and Agricultural Land Values

  Land Economics · 2022 · 21 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Environmental science
  • Agricultural economics

  Property value models are used to examine how utility-scale, ground-mount solar farms affect nearby agricultural land values. Results indicate that solar farms do not have direct positive or negative spillover effects on nearby agricultural land values. However, results also suggest that solar farm construction may indirectly affect agricultural land values by signaling the land’s suitability for future solar development. Specifically, results indicate that proximity of agricultural land to electric transmission lines may be positively valued after a solar farm is constructed nearby.

  PublisherDOI

• Translating a Global Emission-Reduction Framework for Subnational Climate Action: A Case Study from the State of Georgia

  Environmental Management · 2021 · 16 citations

  • Political Science
  • Environmental resource management
  • Environmental planning

  Subnational entities are recognizing the need to systematically examine options for reducing their carbon footprints. However, few robust and comprehensive analyses are available that lay out how US states and regions can most effectively contribute. This paper describes an approach developed for Georgia-a state in the southeastern United States called "Drawdown Georgia", our research involves (1) understanding Georgia's baseline carbon footprint and trends, (2) identifying the universe of Georgia-specific carbon-reduction solutions that could be impactful by 2030, (3) estimating the greenhouse gas reduction potential of these high-impact 2030 solutions for Georgia, and (4) estimating associated costs and benefits while also considering how the solutions might impact societal priorities, such as economic development opportunities, public health, environmental benefits, and equity. We began by examining the global solutions identified by Project Drawdown. The resulting 20 high-impact 2030 solutions provide a strategy for reducing Georgia's carbon footprint in the next decade using market-ready technologies and practices and including negative emission solutions. This paper describes our systematic and replicable process and ends with a discussion of its strengths, weaknesses, and planned future research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Water Use in the Landscape: A Comparison of Water Quality and Irrigation Technologies on Behavior

  Water Resources Research · 2021-09-12 · 2 citations

  article

  Abstract Reclaimed wastewater for outdoor irrigation purposes is an effective tool for conserving potable water sources and reducing effluent discharge from wastewater treatment facilities. Despite its “green” attributes, we find outdoor watering behavior that is consistent with households treating reclaimed water as a lower quality substitute to potable water for outdoor residential irrigation. Using unique microdata, we estimate the demand for outdoor water and find that after controlling for differences in irrigation water prices, households using reclaim water and households without automatic irrigation systems consume substantially less water in the landscape.

  PublisherDOI

• Using Revealed Preference Methods to Estimate the Value of Reduced Mortality Risk: Best Practice Recommendations for the Hedonic Wage Model

  Review of Environmental Economics and Policy · 2020 · 18 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Economics
  • Actuarial science
  • Econometrics

  The hedonic wage model provides a key input into benefit–cost analyses of public policies that are aimed at reducing mortality risks: an estimate of the value of reduced mortality risk (VRMR), also known as the value of a statistical life. Because a large majority of the benefits associated with policies that improve air quality stem from mortality risk reductions, estimates of the VRMR play an exceptionally important role. The use of VRMR estimates from hedonic wage studies in benefit–cost analyses of environmental policies is not without controversy. This article reviews the use and importance of the VRMR in environmental regulation and policy and summarizes the major shortcomings of existing VRMR estimates derived from hedonic wage models. We propose a set of best practices for estimating and reporting VRMR estimates using the hedonic wage framework

  PublisherDOI

• The Cape Romain Coastal Conservation Partnership: multi-decision-maker adaptation planning for global change along the U.S. Atlantic coast

  2020-12-07

  article

• Climate change adaptation for coastal national wildlife refuges

  2019-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Roger H. von Haefen

  North Carolina State University

  11 shared

• Casey J. Wichman

  Resources For The Future

  11 shared

• Kevin Boyle

  Northwestern University

  7 shared

• Daniel J. Phaneuf

  Agricultural & Applied Economics Association

  6 shared

• Jonathan Lee

  6 shared

• Ronald G. Cummings

  5 shared

• John B. Braden

  5 shared

• Xiangping Liu

  Changchun University

  4 shared

Labs

• Laura Taylor LabPI

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Econ…